Top 11 D.C. Sports Moments of 2008

Number one. (By Preston Keres - TWP)

Author's note: This is the third straight year I've done this, but the first time I've remembered to do it during the actual year. For past years, see 2007 and 2006. Also, I will be chatting on this subject Monday at 11 a.m.; submit your questions here.

Second author's note: I did this pretty quickly. In retrospect, three things noted in comments--Joe Gibbs retiring, Monk and Green getting into the Hall, and Ryan Zimmerman's opening night walk-off--should all have found a place here somewhere. Oh well, I'll do better in '09.

So: the top 11 D.C. Sports Bog moments of 2008. This year's criteria: It has to be locally based. It has to have attracted some national attention. It has to pass the "will we remember it 10 years from now? test. It has to have been bloggable. And, since I now see my traffic numbers every day, it has to have registered on the click counter. From worst to first.

11.The Redskins launch a new media blitz. To some extent, this is inside baseball, or inside football, but our little online D.C. sports world was captivated by Chris Cooley's new blog, Vinny Cerrato's new radio show and the Redskins's new blogger. For better or worse, all three developments provided hundreds of thousands of clicks this fall, bestowing their clickable bounty even on non-Skins employees. The highlight, of course, was the public unveiling of Cooley's most intimate bits. So, if you want to be short about it, call this one CC(C)P.

Number 10. (By Preston Keres - TWP)

10.George Mason, American and UMBC all win their conference tournaments, putting Patriots, Eagles and Retrievers in the Dance. Sure, none of them won, but the result confirmed this area as one of the nation's absolute basketball hotbeds. In the past six seasons, three D.C.-area teams have made it to the Final Four, and something like six more teams within a 90-minute drive have earned tourney berths.

9. Despite his injuries, Gilbert remains relevant. On the one hand, this is a far cry from hitting game-winners, and could rightly be called cheap blog gimmickry on my part. On the other hand, my item about Gilbert's new swimming pool was the most-read blog item I've ever composed by a factor of about four. Nearly anyone who follows the NBA has seen photos of Gilbert's grotto. And he repeatedly made headlines, from his engagement story to his wax sculpture to his Obama tattoo, even while sitting and watching. If he's on the court, he's still D.C.'s most bloggable athlete. On the bench, he'll have to settle for being one keystroke away from zero.

Number 8. (By Toni L. Sandys - TWP)

8.No one watches the Nats on television. Amazingly, my item about the lack of interest in D.C.'s baseballers--stolen from Sports Business Journal--was the most-read thing I've ever done on the Nats. There's interest in a lack of interest, clicks in a lack of clicks, eyeballs in their absence. Weird. And Bud Selig even got to talking about this. But sometimes, you have to go backward before you can go forward (see: Capitals, Washington), and I'm already pricing flights to Spring Training. Honestly, for as much as I make fun, I also am convinced that the next time the Nats creep above .500 in July, this place will be baseball mad. For now, it's fun to think of jokes.

6.Jim Zorn is hired, coming to D.C. with a promise to revive the Maroon and Black. That, as it turned out, was just a hint of what we had in store, from Stay Medium to coyote skinning, from publicly calling out his players to making faces never before seen at NFL lecterns. By this point, I fully understand that the Ways of Zorn are a lot more pleasing to media members than fans; the media members love the different, the funny, the candid and the original, while the fans love the wins. But wherever you fall on that spectrum, 2008 was the Year of Zorn.

5. But it was also the Year of DeShawn. That's easy to forget now, with both he and his team completely unrecognizable, but DeShawn Stevenson had an incredible few months in 2008, both for his own national Q rating and for my traffic. Among the highlights: the crescendo of his well-covered beard-growing contest, an amazing back tattoo, personalized bathrobes, the best birthday party I've ever attended, a full-on Michael Vick outfit, and a fairly remarkable music video performance. He also had a career year on the court, but man, was he a star off of it.

Number 5. (By Dan Steinberg - TWP)

4. The Caps break through the media dead space. Call it Rock the Red, Part II, because it was at least theoretically possible that last year's (fairly brief) Caps madness could have died off this fall. Judging from all available data--TV ratings, our Web traffic, random shirt sightings--quite the opposite happened. Add in the bizarre but endearing commercial spots filmed by their two biggest stars--Ovechkin and Boudreau--and it all has the feeling of something more permanent than the 1998 Cup run, which had already receded by the time I moved to D.C. that July. I mean, when you go out with friends, in December, they say "as long as we pick a place that will have the Caps game on." That pretty much says it all.

3. We laughed, we cried, we Hip Hip Hoorayed. Much like DeShawn's legendary few months, it's hard to remember the mirthful, hilarity-filled optimism of those few weeks in late September and early October, when we were literally trying to figure out how likely a Super Bowl berth was for the Redskins. In retrospect, you throw out the wins over the Lions and Browns, gloss over the games against the mediocre Saints and Cardinals, and are left with two big wins: at Dallas, at Philly. Both were followed with exclamations from an excited owner, and both were followed with Hip Hip Hooray. It was the high water mark, sure, but what a stain it left.

Number 2. (By John McDonnell - TWP)

2. For the first time since the Verizon Center opened, its two main pro inhabitants made the playoffs in the same year. It's particularly nostalgic this week, with the Cavs returning to the VC on Sunday and the Flyers on Sunday. Anyhow, we'll start with Rock the Red, Part I, which had more than its share of highlights: Mike Wise on the big screen, rampant mohawks, bottle throwing, fan banter, drunk guys from Canada. That was fun.

I'm a lifelong Redskins fan, I just wrote a post for my blog that might interest you. It's about how football makes life a little easier, even if your team sucks sometimes. I thought the sentiment was appropriate. Here's the link...

Way to go!
So do DC United fans get any sort of honorable mention for having the best tailgate/atmosphere of any pro sports in the Washington area? You know it's true dan. bug off if you don't feel it brah...

I'll agree with both suggestions: Monk/Green into the Hall and the Zim walk off should have been up here, as definite moments.

I think I overlooked both because I wasn't there....I missed Monk/Green because of the stupid Olympics, and Zim because I was watching my daughter. If I had to do this over, I'd replace the Skins new media blitz and the NCAA hoops, or possibly the Nats TV ratings.

Your omission of both Ryan Zimmerman’s walkoff Home Run and Monk/Green to the HOF as top D.C. 2008 sports moments is quite telling. It tells me that you and I have radically different opinions of the Washington Sports scene (which is great because you know what they say about opinions). It also tells me I need to get out more because, until I asked someone more pop culture savvy than me, I had no clue who Soulja Boy was.

No Stanley Cup (yet), but Alex Ovechkin won trophies for most goals, most points, MVP as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association, and outstanding player voted on by the NHL Players Association. Ovechkin also broke the record for most goals by a left wing in the history of the NHL.

I'd have lumped the Year of Deshawn (it must have been a slow year) with the Wiz-Cavs Soulja Boy Game. And I'd have added Joe Gibbs retirement/coaching search debacle in there somewhere. Otherwise, it's a great list, and I definitely agree that the number 1 item had to be the Cavs-Wiz series/Soulja boy game.

I was at the Caps games to make it into the playoffs last year. Maybe we got invaded by Flyers during the playoffs but that was the best week to two week long atmosphere I have ever seen in this area all week long. I think that was first.

Given the rest of the items on your list, we're not surprised you left out Zimm's Walkoff; but we are shocked, dismayed, and still fuming that you failed to mention Jim Bowden riding around on his Segway at Spring Training '08:

http://www.nationalsenquirer.com/2008/02/there-are-no-wo.html

(programming note: be sure to check http://www.nationalsenquirer.com/ tomorrow for the official Top 11 Nationals Moments of 2008)

I think it's kind of telling that Monk/Green and Nats opening night were omitted. Sure, Dan admits he goofed by not putting them in there. But it also shows how the owners of those two franchises completely pooped on and overshadowed those moments throughout their '08 seasons. It's almost as if good news is forgotten when it comes to those teams.

That was a great Wiz moment during the Cavalier game with Soulja Boy there. I was in the audience and the place was electrifying! One of the best Wiz games I've ever attended that was that intense.Both the audience and the players. I have always thought the Wiz lacked the fired up type intensity you see on other teams but for one night they brought it. Wish they would play like that every night. It fires up the crowd.

Nice list. Not suggesting that you've slighted the Hoyas, but since you asked, a couple events merited consideration, given what it took to achieve them:
1. The Hoyas were undefeated at the Verizon Center in all of 2008 (covering both the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons).
2. The Hoyas won their second consecutive Big East regular season crown.